Falling for Fall

Our tree

Our tree, literally 2 days later.

A beautiful sunrise captured by Mike last week.

Random Maxism

Max: I like toast but I do not like snakes. They can bite me. Like this, AWRRR. (As he takes a snake-ish bite out of his toast.)

And speaking of snakes, I recently procured my favorite childhood Disney film on DVD; Robin Hood. I had so much fun watching that movie for the first time in probably 15 years. I sang along, bounced in my seat, quoted lines along with the characters. It was heavenly! My little brother and I used to love to imitate the sound effect made when Sir Hiss turned himself in to a self-propelled balloon. Whewtoo, whewtoo, whewtoo. It's still my favorite after all these years. Oodalally!

The 11th Commandment

A couple of days ago I asked Max to clean up his Matchbox cars. He conveniently ignored me and kept playing. Zoom, zoom, zoom he went on the coffee table with his little truck. I repeated myself a few minutes later, "Max, it's time to clean up your Matchbox cars." The response I got from my darling 3 year old just blew my mind. He continued playing and without looking up or pausing he said, "Number six. Thou shalt not clean up."

And that boys and girls is apparently an addendum to the current commandments as we know them. It seems my 9 year old also knows of this commandment. ;o)

Halloween

Our neighborhood's costume contest:

Max, Matthew, Steven, Kevin

The Grim Reaper

Halloween Night, ready for Trick or Treating!

Free!

There have been so many fun things to do for free in Nashville these past two weeks. Last week we went to the Frist Center and the Tennessee State Museum (we were quite surprised with the latter and can't wait to go back). We didn't take any pics last weekend, but here are a few from this weekend.

One of the Dunlap Broadsides visited Nashville this weekend. Very cool presentation, very cool to see it. What our forefathers sacrificed for this piece of paper; inspiring.

There was no flash photography, so the above pic is not the greatest. Below you can see a better pic of the Declaration itself. Do you know this copy is actually older than the handwritten, signed copy?

Next came the Schermerhorn Symphony Center

We took no pics inside, we let our ears do the working. But here's a pic of the outside.

Technically this one is free all the time (Nashville Public Library) but this was Max's first time searching for the resident mouse, "Buttercup". Alas, she was out.

Lastly, an ode to our favorite WINNING team! (As opposed to the above ode to our losing team. Sigh.)

Junk mail?

My Dad went golfing today with a buddy at a private course. When they got to a specific hole, his friend said, "Jess, see that house over there? Watch this." The dude walked over to her mailbox and pulled out some freshly baked cookies! Apparently whenever the flag is up on her mailbox, that's her 'alert' to the golfers that there are cookies therein. I just think that's the coolest thing ever.

Do you ever mentally collect things that you want to make sure you do when you're old? This one is surely on my list.

1, 2, 3, 4

Max's preschool teacher passed along a funny story that happened on his first day of school. She was counting with her fingers and saying the numbers outloud as she went along to the class. When she got to #2, holding up her 2 fingers Max yelled out, "That's peace out, dude!" That's my Max.

7 things

I was tagged by Tabitha.
Here goes:

7 things I want to do before I die
1) Travel abroad
2) Give birth to or adopt a daughter
3) Swim with dolphins
4) Fit in to a size 8
5) Further my path of faith
6) Beat my Dad at Scrabble
7) Watch my kids get married and have children of their own

7 things I can do
1) Bake cookies
2) Throw a party
3) Listen
4) Graphic Design
5) Find the best stuff at Goodwill
6) Throw together a kick butt Halloween costume
7) Photography

7 things I cannot do
1) Play sports
2) Stick to a diet
3) I have no sense of direction
4) Knit (I want to learn, though)
5) Stay off the computer
6) Resist my son's smiles
7) Remember to return my library books on time

7 things that attract me to my man
1) His intelligence
2) He makes me laugh like no one else can
3) His smile
4) His eyes
5) That "look" he gives me whenever he thinks I look hot
6) His empathy towards others
7) His taste in books, music, movies

7 things I say most often
1) I love you!
2) What are you doing?
3) Do you need to go potty?
4) Be a good girl while we're gone, Maddie. (The dog)
5) It's not your turn, Max.
6) Sorry, it's what's for dinner and you have to eat it.
7) No, I don't want to watch Cars.

7 celebrity crushes (in no particular order)
1) Brad Pitt
2) Joaquin Phoenix
3) David Beckham
4) Johnny Depp
5) Jonathan Rhys Meyers
6) Dane Cook
7) John Mayer

7 People to Tag
1) Cinde
2) Holly
3) Laurie
4) Stephanie
5) Stacie
6) Amy
7) Anyone else that reads this that hasn't been tagged already!

First Day

Images from Max's first day of preschool:

The time of my life!

Mike and I were lucky enough to be invited to go to the Titans game with my friend Courtney. Her husband has season tickets in the best spot in the house. We were sitting front row, center, on the aisle, in the endzone! (The endzone where the players run out of the tunnel at the beginning of the game.)

What a game! The Titans won in the last few seconds by kicking a field goal. So exciting. I can't imagine watching the game any other way. Oh, and by the way, I'll be going to the Titans/Browns game in December...sitting in the same seats! Although I am a Titans fan, I have to represent my childhood team, so I'll be wearing a DawgPound mask and barking the entire time! I can't wait.

The coin toss

The Freak is back!

The lucky couple

Wouldn't you just love these seats?

Fourth Grader

The pre-requisite first day of school pics:

(Tabitha, I swear I didn't steal this one...great minds just think alike!)

End of summer celebration

Mike took Matthew to the Titans game Saturday night as a celebration of the end of summer and the beginning of 4th grade. Just a boys night out, and what a blast they had!

All's fair

Went to the county fair over the weekend and had a blast! It really wasn't as hot as I was dreading and imagining it to be. The boys had a blast. We met up with my friend Courtney and her family. Lemonade, corndogs, funnel cakes, sno cones, women in skin-tight gold lame pants, children dressed as Elvis (it was Elvis night), pig races, screams, smiles, laughs...it was a good night.

Just us chickens!

Just check out the excitement on Max's face! Woo boy.

He was giggling with delight when the goats nibbled at his hand.

Now that's pure entertainment.


Mike's artistic hand here

Max and Blake

"Elvis"

(He was accompanied by Elvis's actual back up singers "The Jordanaires" and also his drummer. So I guess that makes his cheesyness kinda cool. Maybe.)

Ugh.

Parents, do you ever look back at pics of your kids as babies and wonder, "Did I really think they were cute?" I can't be the only one.

Maxi-mums

While driving in the car this evening, the following convo happened:

Max: Mom, my head won't open.
Me: WHAT?
Max: My head won't open...see? (Imagine him pushing his cheeks in on either side while sucking in his cheeks and raising his eyebrows)
Me: Why do you need your head to be open?
Max: Like the shirt.
Me: Like the shirt?
Max: Yah, the shirt.

That was the end of the conversation.
If anyone has any insight into this that would be of any help, please chime in. I'm clueless.

Goofy Max

Wanted to add this one before I forgot about it. This is a conversation had on June 5, 2008.

Me: Tomorrow's your birthday, Max!

Max: No, it isn't.

Me: Yes! It is!

Matthew: Yes, Max, tomorrow is your birthday!

Max: No, it isn't.

Me: Do you know what happens on your birthday, Max? You get to open presents!

Max: Tomorrow is my birthday!

Matthew's hypothesis

Matthew's brain sometimes astounds me.

Mike was watching some show on Discovery that mentioned that the moon is moving away from the earth at about 2.5 cm per year. Mike shared this tidbit with us during dinner one night. Matthew was interested in this and asked a few questions but then dropped the subject.

A few days later, once again at dinner, Matthew mentioned to us that he had been reading a book about black holes. He read that if something was caught in a black hole and it could move fast enough, then it could conceivably escape the black hole. So Matthew hypothesized that the moon must be orbiting faster than earth so that it's escaping our gravitational pull.

Although incorrect (the moon spins exactly once on its axis for every one revolution around Earth; forced to show the same face toward Earth for all eternity), his intellectual prowess astounded me. He listened to information, absorbed it, rolled it around in his noggin for awhile, added some theory to it, and spit it back out with reason.

He is destined for greatness, I am certain.

Uniform

Everyday Mike puts on a belt to go to work. Max has caught on to this daily ritual and has decided that he will be Mike's personal butler by taking it out of the drawer every morning and helping Mike put it on. It's very cute.

The other day I had to go in to work on a day that it was ok to bring Max in with me for a couple of hours. When I told him that it was time to get dressed for work he very excitedly said, "I wear my beltloops?!" I said, "Sure, Max! Why not?" So he chose a pair of shorts with belt loops and then said, "I go get Daddy's belt!" Well, after telling him that Daddy's belt wouldn't fit him, I was looking through a drawer hoping I had one that would. Sure enough, I had one just his size. "PERFECT for me!", he said. He was very proud of his belt. When we left work and were headed to a restaurant for lunch, my precious boy asked if he could leave his belt on, or if he needed to take it off. Apparently he's noticed that the first thing Mike does when he gets home from work is take his belt off. He was afraid he had to do the same.

Belt on, belt off. Clock in, clock out.

Fluffy, pink, glitter, rainbows, happiness, love

At least those are a few things that come to mind when I think of my new niece, Eva Renee. Eva was born July 10, weighing in at 7.2 lbs and 20 in long. I am so proud to be called Aunt Michelle! I can't wait to watch her grow up and spoil her rotten. Those of you who know me well, know that I have been chomping at the bit for years to shop in the baby girl department. Now I have a very legitimate excuse! Actually, I'm cutting this post short so I can go do just that...buh bye! Enjoy the pics.

Ketchup time

Beach vacation for Memorial Day week:

Now on to Max's birthday, June 6th:

And on the day of his party that weekend:

Finally, I'm all caught up and I don't feel guilty anymore! Yay! (I'll try to be better from now on...)